Facing the return of the Japanese and American manufacturing industries

Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported at the beginning of the year that Canon predicts that it is unlikely that the yen will appreciate again in a few years. It will adjust its strategic deployment to strengthen domestic production and expand the international market with high-quality "Made in Japan" as its selling point. The company will maintain the status quo of production facilities abroad and has no plans to cut production or lay off staff.

Canon Japan's domestic production of SLR cameras and color copiers accounted for 60% of production in 2000. After the global financial crisis in 2008, the yen appreciated sharply, and the transfer of overseas manufacturing accelerated. Since the yen has weakened relative to the dollar, the Japanese manufacturing industry has chosen to adjust the proportion of domestic and foreign production after judging the trend of foreign exchange. It is planned that by 2015, the proportion of domestic production in Japan will increase from the current 42% to 50%. This means that Canon will expand equipment investment and increase employment in the country. If other Japanese companies have similar plans, it may drive up domestic costs, so major trading companies are still quite cautious.

This is after the United States repeatedly released the signal of "returning the manufacturing industry to the country", another developed country has quietly reversed the strategy of transferring manufacturing to overseas for decades. The driving force behind it is the depreciation of the yen.

The Bank of Japan's March 2012 Corporate Short-Term Economic Observation Survey ("Tankan") showed that the premise exchange rate for large Japanese manufacturing companies to set their 2013 business plans is 1 US dollar to 85.22 yen, This year, the yen depreciated by 17%. If the depreciation of the yen goes into a long-term trend, and the import value settled in US dollars will expand, in order to balance the trade balance, the need to strengthen exports is very urgent.

The return of American manufacturing to the country is largely a factor of domestic politics. No matter the ruling party or the opposition party, they must put forward the slogan of creating job opportunities, even if the United States has no competitiveness in low-end manufacturing. In other words, this does not prevent the media from catching sporadic cases to write about.

In the past 20 years, the income of the middle class in the United States has hardly increased, and the gap with the high-income group has become wider and wider. Some economists blame the transfer of manufacturing to overseas, which has led to the "hollowing out" of the domestic industry. Instead, low-end service industries, such as retail and catering, have limited wages; service industries with higher skills, such as writing computer programs, accounting, filing medical cases, etc., rely on electronic communication to develop and are easier to outsource. . It seems that only restarting the manufacturing industry, especially since the development of oil shale in the United States, has sufficient natural gas supply and lower energy prices, which is expected to create favorable conditions for re-industrialization.

The difference between the United States and Japan is that the United States has a huge domestic market, and advocates the return of manufacturing to the country to shorten the supply chain and meet the needs of the domestic market in a timely manner. However, a large part of the products are still sold abroad. Therefore, the economic recovery of Europe and the economic growth of emerging markets are crucial to developing external demand markets.

In the last century, due to the low technical content of China's export products, there was basically no competition between China and Japan and the United States in the global foreign trade market. However, after years of upgrading, some export products of complete sets of equipment need More strategically explore and manage the export market. In this regard, government assistance can play a key role, and enterprises must actively seek government support and cooperation.

Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry is renowned for its efficient guidance from strategy to micro-operations. The United States is relatively extensive in developing foreign trade markets, but for industries that want to go out, they can seek government help and even sell goods that have no market at all.

There is an industry association of potato growers in the United States. Once I saw the potato item on the list of agricultural products exported by the USDA, and the export market was actually Latin American countries. The potato was discovered by Columbus in the New World. After being promoted to the whole world, potatoes from North America are sold to Central and South America, which is really incredible. So I really called this industry association. This organization is quite large. It has a spokesperson, a marketing department, and the international market is divided into regions. I really can't underestimate this humble root crop. I contacted the person in charge of the marketing department, and he gave me a class on potato foreign trade marketing, and then delivered a bunch of promotional materials.

The potatoes sold in the United States to the Latin American market are cut into French fries, frozen and processed, mainly for local fast food restaurants. I ask why locals don't use locally grown potatoes? He said that the kitchen of the fast food restaurant is very small, and a lot of potatoes are made, peeled and cut into strips, which damages the "modern" image of the fast food restaurant. I ask again, so why don't the locals make their own frozen fries? His answer was, "American fries are nutritious, hygienic, in line with the tastes of the emerging middle class, and affordable." I still think these reasons are not enough, and then he further said that their association provides "value-added services" at different levels, and assigns a special person to teach "fry station management" (fry station management) and issue a certificate of completion. I asked, "Isn't this marketing pretty expensive?" He said generously, "Uncle Sam pays the bill." Then I called the Department of Agriculture to ask, and the spokesperson there told me that U.S. law does not allow subsidies to subsidize agricultural exports, but Can assist in promotion, in addition to potatoes, almonds, walnuts, citrus, and exports all benefit from Uncle Sam's great help.

After I was transferred to China by Reuters, I found out that the aforementioned potato association also has an office. At that time, the American potatoes shipped to China were not in the form of frozen fries, but wrapped in tinfoil. The whole piece of simple and honest potatoes is served to high-end western restaurants after being baked softly and eaten with steak. I forgot to ask if the master chef of the western restaurant also received a certificate of completion in "Baking Oven Management" and hung it on the kitchen wall to show off. This kind of wiping the government's oil is not enough, but if you don't ask the government to lend a helping hand in opening up the foreign trade market, maybe even a single American potato can't be sold overseas.

China is often labelled as state capitalism when it explores the global market. In fact, foreign trade in the new era is no longer the model of Wenzhou businessmen who fought alone, and should rely more on the state. strength, and strategically go against competitors in the global market. In addition to the loan guarantee from the Export-Import Bank, it also helps to clear various market channels, and also assists in cultivating global talents. In the strategy of going global, take a long-term view and cooperate with trading partners in R&D. The whole system operates efficiently. Having me and you in me is the way to long-term success.

Zhou Naiping is a visiting professor at the School of Communication Design, Sun Yat-Sen University, and a former senior financial reporter for Reuters. Author of "International Financial News Knowledge and Report".